Thursday, April 26, 2012

New Zealand Round 2 + Sydney WTS

Back on the grid, back to posting ramblings about not a lot besides training, racing, and Misc.
After a consistent block of training in Victoria throughout February we headed back to the Snowy Farm that is New Zealand for another dose of Flat Whites, roadkill, 13k dirt road, and stunning backdrops.
The first three weeks were spent up at Snow Farm with the New Zealand, French and Dutch. After Mooloolaba the crowd thinned out significantly for the last week, but with Kris Gemmell having the voice of ten men "The Shining" did not ensue. We then moved down into Wanaka for three weeks to sharpen up for Sydney.
The camp had many hard sessions, but my heartrate probably hit it's peak one early morning driving down from the farm where I nearly drove us off a cliff. Jucy, our van rental, took a lot of abuse on that trip but I was sure as hell happy that she managed to right herself inches from toppling over that drop.

Matt with his steed near the Neck Waters of Hawea and Wanaka Lakes

Getting Warm before a chilly lake Swim

Early morning Quality Run at the grass fields of Pembroke Park

Posing with a Warbird

Credit: Simon Whitfield

Imported Some of New Zealands Finest...on sale for 10$/can @ craigslist

Finishing up in Arthurs Point, near Queensland, we hopped accross the Tasman to Aussie for the first round of the WTS series. It was my first visit to Oz and I enjoyed it and the hospitality of friends Dave and Kira. Staying out in Manly Beach I was in and out of the city via a 30' ferry that gave you quite the perspective of Sydney, its beaches and general layout of the the harbour.
Expecting to have a solid race, I was instead given a shocker. The race was really over for me about 1000m into the swim. A slip on the bike was just icing on the cake for a disappointing DNF to 2012.
With a week to reflect on the outcome I had quite a lull in motivation and desire. This was in fact the issue I believe in the race, a lack of fire from within to compete and to resist complacency. In racing you can never be content with where you are.
This current week has offered a couple of opportunities to rekindle. Last night I raced in our local Crit Road series up at Caleb Pike. It had been over two years since I'd rolled in one of these and as I rode up to the start some fond memories started to resurface. Caffeine pills Sharpie?
In the A group we had about 20-25 riders start. Amongst the pack were a few Cat 1's who would make this one quite interesting. It became quite apparent that I had been away from crit racing when I clipped in and found myself almost being dropped within the first 500m. I couldn't have asked for a better sim of an ITU bike. We rode for just over an hour and avgeraged 280W, normalised to 337W! A lot of sprints and surges.

On Sunday I'll run the Times Colonist 10k downtown in what should be another great event to get the juices flowing before a revisit to WTS racing in San Diego on May 12th. Stay tuned.